learning – Aspirational Adventures

Renly relaxing on Boxing Day after a big hike. Photographed by myself December 2024

Ok yes I know dogs get trained to sit, stay, wait, and random things like roll over, etc but I don’t think dogs see everything that goes on in their world as a lesson but too often I hear it from people.

I read an interesting article and when I commented on it the author of the article said he’d been waiting to share as he couldn’t work out what the lesson was. My reply to his reply was “did there have to be a lesson?”

I think too often we humans think every thing that goes on is meant to teach us something and I’m sure some things are, but really is everything?

In 2012-2013 we went through a series of untimely deaths and other random changes in our lives. Was that a lesson? If so I’m not sure what it. Or was it just “things happen and sometimes they happen at the same time”?

The more I’ve seen and done and prayed and pondered the more I think that even though not everything is a lesson per se – because God isn’t some great big teacher wanting us to pass tests all the time – I do think that I have learned things from them and have changed as a person.

It might sound like splitting hairs but I think there is a big difference between learning things and things being a lesson. I think that we can choose to learn things but if something is a lesson there is a specific “thing” to be gained from that.

Also I think if we are open to learning things then yes “every day is a school day” but also it doesn’t mean that we are waiting for a specific something to happen to learn something.

It also means that we have no fear of what the “teacher” is going to say or if we miss the point being made. There is no worrying about what that lesson was.

I home schooled my children up till they were fifteen and people used to often ask what “lessons” we did and how we worked in school holidays. Well because every moment of every day was a chance to learn something all of us, myself included, were always open to what was going on around us, always curious, always expecting something to show up. Not every moment was a lesson that came with outcomes and things that I could tell the home schooling inspector but, on the whole, we learned and changed and grew and explored things on a regular basis.

So I don’t think God is up there with a lesson plan for us but I do think they want us to be open and aware of what is going on around us. They want us to become more who we are called to be, to know and love ourselves, those around us and of course them more and more.

So not everything is a lesson but everything is an opportunity to be open to learning and growing.

Viewed Through Your Lens?

View across the Solway Firth looking from England to Scotland, photographed by Diane Woodrow whilst on holiday in this area in September 2021, and realising for the first time how much further Hadrian's wall went — The start/finish of Hadrian’s Wall taken by myself September 2021

Every thing we look at or interpret we interpret through our own lens, viewpoint, life experiences. I take a quote here from Michael Moore’s blog that I read this morning

Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing
by Thich Nhat Hahn taken from Learning by Michael Moore

I am reading and pondering on a lovely devotional book by my friend David Pott about the painting of Jacob and his sons that hang in Bishop Auckland Castle called Listening to The Boys. My interpretation of some of the paintings and thoughts are very different to David’s. Because I know him I know he is from a large, close family, who enjoy being together and has been married to the same person for over 50 years. Yes I do also know there have been challenges within the family but there has been a lot of support too. He is also a man – obviously.

When I read his thoughts and look at the paintings I am viewing them through the eyes of a woman who isn’t from a large close family and who has had very different life experiences to David. For instance when I read about Simeon and Levi killing the family of the man who raped their sister I, as a woman, side much more with them and their violent justice than I do with Jacob, their father, who is looking for reconciliation and expecting his daughter to marry the man who raped her! In fact, as a woman who would spent time wanting a father to stand in the gap for her I have often struggled with white, male preachers’ take on Jacob in this story.

I think this is where we have to be very careful when, especially in churches, we say “this is what this piece says”. Too often someone will stand at the front of church and speak for 10 minutes to over an hour, depending on the denomination, and say “this is what the Bible says” when in fact they should be saying “this is what I believe this is saying to me at this point in time“.

As a writer and author I know that what I write gets viewed differently by whoever reads it because the reader views it through their worldview/their lens and I have to learn that it does not mean I am wrong or they are wrong. It means I have to slow down and listen, really listen, and try to remove my world view, my experiences, etc.

I also this is this why it is so awesome to read books by writers of different countries, classes, ethnicities, sexualities, etc to myself. If I really listen, and don’t try to cover them with my known world I can learn so much – not just about the other writer but about myself.